Commercial fleets represent a significant portion of the fuel market around the world. Various systems are known that allow fleet operators or managers to automatically monitor and control vehicle fuel usage, record odometer and engine hour readings, monitor efficiency, and simplify and speed the refueling process. For fleet management, amount of fuel used, distance traveled and diagnostic information is useful. Operators of fleets of vehicles sometimes use their own private fuel dispensing sites. For example, a city may have a large number of vehicles used by police departments, fire departments, sanitation departments, parks departments, etc., and may have their own refueling sites in one or more locations in the city for these vehicles. Alternatively, these vehicles may be refueled at commercial gas stations by the operator of the vehicle, though the city or fleet manager would pay for the fuel.
Some managed systems are manual systems in which data, such as odometer readings, pump number, and driver identification number are manually entered by an operator using a keypad. Such manual entry of data is voluntary and is subject to error.
A key aspect of these systems involves preventing fleet users from fueling unauthorized vehicles. Fuel is expensive, more so in some countries than others, and it is desirable to impede theft of fuel by fleet employees or drivers. Theft of fuel in various degrees by employees and nonemployees is common. With regard to maintenance, operators will sometimes not have a vehicle assigned exclusively to them and will lack the feeling of responsibility necessary for them to determine if routine preventative maintenance is required.
This problem doesn't exist if the driver is a retail consumer because, in a consumer setting, the driver of the vehicle is the person paying for the fuel. If the driver diverts fuel away from the vehicle to a container or another vehicle, he or she will still have to pay for it.
There are a variety of systems in the market today that offer fraud protection systems for fuel dispensation. Some systems use a card that has an identification number on a magnetic strip. To receive fuel, the card is inserted into or swiped through a reader. The information is communicated to a central processing unit, often off-site, which determines if the card is valid and which turns on the pump and records the transaction. A problem with this type of system is that such cards can be stolen. Another problem with this type of system is that the fuel can be dispensed into a container or vehicle other than the vehicle owned by the fleet. Cards may also be forged. Also, these systems do not detect whether routine maintenance should be performed.
Improved systems typically utilize a close coupling of a fuel inlet transponder and an antenna attached to the fuel nozzle. In order to communicate the information from the vehicle a wire must usually be run down the center of the fuel hose and connected to a reader device inside the pump. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,605,182 to Oberrecht et al. (incorporated herein by reference), which discloses a vehicle identification system for use in a refueling station. A circuit located on a nozzle spout generates an RF interrogation signal. The RF interrogation signal is detected by a transponder disposed on a vehicle adjacent the vehicle's fill pipe, when the nozzle is positioned adjacent to the vehicle's fill pipe. The RF interrogation signal energizes the transponder on the vehicle to transmit a return signal containing vehicle identification codes. These codes identify vehicle requirements, such as fuel type. The circuit on the nozzle spout interprets the vehicle identification codes and generates signals to control the dispenser in accordance with the vehicle requirements. Information is transmitted to nozzle via a cable which extends through the interior of the fuel hose.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,934,419 to Lamont et al. (incorporated herein by reference) discloses one end of a fiber optic cable being carried by a pump nozzle for receiving information (vehicle identification, distance information, and diagnostic information) from a transmitter on a commercial vehicle when the pump nozzle is inserted into the fuel entry port of that vehicle. The fiber optic cable is run from the top of the nozzle, through a special fitting into the interior of the hose, then runs the length of the delivery hose, surrounded by fuel product, until it reaches the region of the fuel pump and emerges and runs on to a fuel management system.
In addition to transmitting information, these cables carried by the fuel pump hose are sometimes used to transmit information to a controller which suspends delivery of fuel if it is determined that a break in communication with the vehicle occurred, indicating a diversion of fuel to another container or vehicle (e.g., an attempted theft of fuel).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,469,149 to Walkey et al. (incorporated herein by reference) discloses a fuel pump nozzle which carries an optical bar code reader to reading an optical bar code in a vehicle fuel reservoir entry port. The reader is provided with output signal leads extending along the outside of the nozzle and along the flexible hose back to the fuel pump and to a control unit. A comparator compares data from the reader with data from a data source to determine whether that vehicle is authorized to receive fuel.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,737,608 to Nusbaumer et al. (incorporated herein by reference) discloses an automated fuel management system including a fuel dispensing nozzle having a receiving antenna. A fuel receiving tank has a transmitting antenna. The transmitting antenna transmits a radio frequency signal having encoded information about the vehicle. The receiving antenna and transmitting antenna are in such close proximity as to interrupt transmission of the information and to cause cessation of the fueling operation upon minimal withdrawal of the fueling nozzle from the fuel tank.
Attention is also directed to fuel management system sold by Roseman Engineering Ltd., 65 Weizman St., Givatayim 53468 Israel. Prior art systems sold by Roseman Engineering Ltd. require a cable from a low frequency nozzle communication coil along a fuel pump hose for transmission of data from the nozzle RFID along the cable. The nozzle communication coil reads data from the vehicle via an associated vehicle communication coil, and transmits it through the cable along the fuel pump hose.
These types of systems may be fine for private fuel depots, but they do not work very well in the retail fuel stations. Private stations are costly and demand administrative and human resources to maintain. Another problem stems from the fact that the hoses and nozzles are the highest maintenance items in a fuel station. Drivers sometimes drive off with hoses, which detach from the fuel pump. Maintenance of these systems can be quite costly since they require specially trained personnel.
Thus, there is a need for a system that can provide both a high volume, reliable retail solution while at the same time providing a robust fleet capability.